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Fullname: Simon Lynch
Born: 19 May 1982
Birthplace: Montreal Canada
Signed: 20 July 1999
Left: 8 January 2003
Position: Striker
Debut: Motherwell 1-1 Celtic, League, 29 Apr 2000
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: U-21 10
International Goals: U-21 6
Biog
Striker Simon Lynch was a highly rated youth prospect who came through the Parkhead ranks. He is the son of former Celtic player & captain Andy Lynch, so a lot to live up to as is inevitably the case.
An impressive performer at youth team and Under-21 level, the Canadian born performer saw his first team chances at Parkhead limited due to injury. However, he still gave as good as he could get, and scored a very impressive 3 goals in 3 appearances in league matches for Celtic which set most up to believe that he was to become a great player for the First Team.
His debut was on 29 Apr 2000 in a 1-1 draw at the tail-end of the Barnes-Dalglish season, which was mostly a write-off of a season, but at least Dalglish gave some opportunities to young players.
One of his most famous moments was falling out with Shaun Maloney on the pitch over taking a penalty v Hearts (Apr 2002). Bit of a daft moment, but he did score twice in the match which was a high note. It was his first league match for two seasons and he was likely fighting to push for further chances, but it wasn’t to be. It was to be his last league appearance for Celtic, but at least won him a place playing with a league title winning squad. Having scored a double in this match, he had a good argument to be allowed further opportunities.
Aside from the injuries, he found it hard to win a place in the Celtic side primarily because he faced the most formidable competition from Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson. New manager Martin O’Neil had opted in general for certain high profile transfers in and was not in general rearing youth players into the first team. Simon Lynch was never going to make it against those three, and his development time was likely best spent elsewhere. Sadly for him he played no part at all in the incredible domestic treble winning debut season for new manager Martin O’Neill.
Consequently Lynch made just three starts in total for Celtic before signing for Preston in January 2003 in a £130,000 deal.
It was disappointing. Some had marked him as potentially being one to look out for (be it here or elsewhere), but really it was to be Shaun Maloney who was to be the one youth player to make it at Celtic.
It wasn’t to be for Simon Lynch at Celtic, but we wished him the best.
Post-Celtic
The Scotland Under-21 international struggled at the Lancashire club and would return north of the border when he joined Dundee in July 2005.
His time at Preston was hardly with the first team, and a goal-scoring run he had hoped for was difficult as he found himself commonly on the bench when Preston were going through the doldrums. In December 2003 he went out on loan to Stockport County and then on loan again to Blackpool. With his contract up at Preston, Simon Lynch returned to Scotland with Dundee in 2005. He managed 13 goals in 31 league appearances for the Dark Blues, but Dundee’s financial problems meant he was unlikely to remain.
On 3 July 2006, it was revealed that Lynch had signed a two-year contract with Queensland Roar. Despite being unable to participate in the Pre-season Cup due to visa problems, Lynch wasted no time in making an impact for his new team and quickly made a name for himself in Australia. He continued to score goals and became something of a crowd favourite.
At the end of the 2007-08 season, after recovery from a closed-season operation and a season where they had failed to gain any notable successes he was released by Queensland Roar.
He returned to Scotland and took a one year contract playing for Airdrie Utd.
At the start of 2009-10 season he joined East Stirlingshire, but quit the game early at just 29 citing loss of motivation.
After football, he moved into music and even got the chance to perform as part of the pre-match entertainment at Celtic. Respect to him for that.
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Airdrie Utd | 01/07/2008 | Signed | 24 (9) | 10 | 3 (0) | 3 | 1 (1) | 0 | 3 (4) | 1 | |
| Dundee | 01/07/2005 | 14/05/2006 | Signed | 28 (5) | 13 | 6 (0) | 3 | 1 (0) | 1 | 3 (0) | 1 |
| Blackpool | 16/12/2004 | 27/02/2005 | Loan | 5 (2) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Stockport | 12/12/2003 | 02/02/2004 | 9 (0) | 3 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Preston | 08/01/2003 | 01/07/2005 | £130,000 | 14 (30) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (1) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Celtic | 20/07/1999 | 08/01/2003 | Signed | 2 (1) | 3 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 1 (1) | 0 |
| Totals | £130,000 | 82 (47) | 30 | 11 (0) | 6 | 2 (2) | 2 | 7 (5) | 2 | ||
| goals / game | 0.23 | 0.54 | 0.5 | 0.16 | |||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
Pictures
Articles
Lynch and Maloney take centre stage for Celtic Hearts swept aside as Parkhead youngsters star
The Herald
Rob Robertson at Tynecastle
29 Apr 2002
ON this showing, if Celtic ever do decide to quit Scottish football then they could always leave behind their under-21 team and a few experienced reserves to compete in the Scottish Premier League. Such a suggestion may sound like sacrilege, but when you consider a bunch of youngsters peppered with a mix of fringe players and veterans managed to easily beat Hearts, then the idea may not be so condescending.
As the young Celtic players left Tynecastle last night – their club having reached the 100-point mark for the season – justifiably proud of the way they had played, a piece of immaturity by Shaun Maloney brought the game to an amusing and slightly embarrassing end.
The Celtic bench had signalled that Simon Lynch take the penalty awarded to Celtic in the last minute to give him his first hat trick for the club in what was his first game for around 18 months. However, Maloney, who had scored a hat trick for Celtic earlier this season, was having none of it. Despite the fact even people in the main stand could see and hear John Robertson, the Celtic assistant coach, asking Maloney to give the ball to Lynch to take the penalty, he refused so to do.
Lynch tried to get the ball off him then walked away from the scene as the squabbling for the ball by the youngsters gave everybody a good laugh.
After that little spat Maloney was always going to miss the spot-kick, which he did when he struck a post. ”Tommy Boyd should have taken control of the incident as captain, but never did,” said Martin O’Neill, the Celtic manager, with a wry grin on his face. ”Some of the backroom staff wanted Simon (Lynch) to take it because Shaun had scored a hat trick already but I just kept well out of it.”
Lynch said afterwards he was not going to fall out with Maloney over things. ”He got the ball before me and I couldn’t wrestle it off him,” joked Lynch, who is the son of former Celtic defender Andy. ”We are still good friends.” The fact that inexperienced youngsters like Lynch and John Kennedy, a defender, both making their first starts of the season, didn’t look out of place shows the strength in depth that Celtic now have.
Lynch has finally overcome a serious pelvic injury, while 18-year-old Kennedy, a younger version of Mick McCarthy in style, managed to nullify the more experienced Thomas Flogel and Ricardo Fuller fairly easily.
However, the pair also represent the age-old problem Old Firm youngsters have. On the one hand they are seduced into signing on with the big club but then have to kick their heels to wait for their opportunity to come. To be fair to the bunch of them yesterday which also included Jamie Smith and Colin Healy, who has returned from Coventry on loan, they certainly showed their manager their long-term potential.
They won’t get into the cup final squad but more importantly, they would have done their own confidence the power of good. Lynch’s two goals were both excellent pieces of finishing, as were the two from Shaun Maloney, who at 19, can’t be lumped in with the rest of the youngsters O’Neill put out at Tynecastle as he is a veritable veteran with two first team starts this season. From a Hearts point of view, to try as best they could and still come up short against a makeshift Celtic team is embarrassing in the extreme. OK, they may well have been deflated after they realised their chances of making the UEFA Cup had gone after Livingston’s win against Dunfermline, but to be so outplayed in front of their own supporters will do little for next season’s advanced ticket sales.
The key area yesterday was in the middle of the park, where the Hearts midfield did not function and Celtic’s decision to play Momo Sylla in the hole behind the front two of Lynch and Maloney left them tactically confused to start with. Indeed, it was Sylla who caused confusion in the Hearts defence for the first Celtic goal, as he managed to head flick the ball onto Lynch who had caught the home sides back four square.
Shrugging off Scott Severin as if he was not there, the Montreal-born player calmly lobbed the ball over Antti Niemi, ran in behind the Hearts keeper, before heading the ball into the empty net. Hearts did get back into things on the half-hour mark when Fuller outpaced Morten Wieghorst to shoot home, although the Hearts striker looked well offside when he started his run.
On another day Celtic’s protests would have been stronger but with nothing at stake they let things go. They probably realised they were in the driving seat, and despite the goal against them continued to dominate.
It was no surprise when, four minutes before half-time, Smith ghosted in past three defenders before playing in Lynch for the easiest of tap-ins. In the second half, Maloney showed that it is not just Lubo Moravcik who can curl free-kicks into the top corner when he did just that with 50 minutes on the clock.
Then 15 minutes later, Maloney scored again with a left-foot shot into a corner of the net. From then on in it was a simple case of how many Celtic would score, with Maloney’s last-minute spat with Lynch over the penalty adding to the entertainment.
Afterwards Craig Levein, the Tynecastle manager, savaged his team, claiming that certain players, who he did not name, but who were out of contract at the end of the season, had ”just chucked it” when his side went 3-1 down. ”They will be leaving the club, and with performances like that they have speeded their departure.”
The Hearts official conceded that even a ”reserve” Celtic team had beaten them easily which is a scenario that would worry any SPL manager and sadly shows the gulf between the Old Firm and the other teams in Scottish football.
Former Hoops star Simon Lynch set to launch pop career at Celtic Park
A FOOTBALL star, once seen as Scotland’s next big thing, will make his second debut in front of a home crowd today – to launch his pop career.https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-hoops-star-simon-lynch-1090478
A FOOTBALL star, once seen as Scotland’s next big thing, will make his second debut in front of a home crowd today – to launch his pop career. Former Celtic striker Simon Lynch, who was tipped for the top by Kenny Dalglish and Martin O’ Neill, quit football earlier this year and has just released his first record. The 29-year-old will perform his single, Sounds Of Paradise, in front of tens of thousands of fans at Celtic Park, where he made his footballing debut more than a decade ago. And Simon, whose dad Andy Lynch was a Celtic captain, said he is as nervous as he was when he lined up alongside Henrik Larsson for his very first game at the ground in May 2000. He said: “I’m really excited and nervous to get out there. It’s going to be great to be singing in the same place I used to play and in front of the same fans. “It felt great to record the single and the fact that it’s a song all about Celtic is just perfect. “I hope the fans like it. I released it on iTunes this week and have had a lot of great feedback so I hope it does well. “We’re raising money for the Celtic Charity Fund through the single and I hope it helps the good causes.”